Using Lava Sand Heating Pads For Your Headaches

When you have a headache, taking some pain medications is not your only option.

You can also use a lava sand heating pad to help reduce or completely remove the headache you are feeling.

A cold heat pad will help to decrease blood flow to your head and a hot heat pad will increase the blood flow to your head.  A lava sand heating pad can give you both hot and cold heating pads.

Read on to find out more information as to why heating pads are a good option for your headaches.

What are headaches?

Before we get into what you might do to help your headaches, it is important to know what exactly a headache is.

According to New In Health:

"A headache may feel like a pain inside your brain, but it’s not. Most headaches begin in the many nerves of the muscles and blood vessels that surround your head, neck, and face. These pain-sensing nerves can be set off by stress, muscle tension, enlarged blood vessels, and other triggers. Once activated, the nerves send messages to the brain, and it can feel like the pain is coming from deep within your head.

Tension headaches are the most common type of headache. They can cause a feeling of painful pressure on the head and neck. Tension headaches occur when the muscles in your head and neck tighten, often because of stress or anxiety. Intense work, missed meals, jaw clenching, or too little sleep can bring on tension headaches."

https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2014/03/headache-pain

Many of us suffer from headaches from time to time.

This is a pretty normal experience for most of us.

And most often, these types of headaches occur because of stress, anxiety, or tense work.

This then causes the pain sensing nerves to flair up.

Then you begin to have the headache.

Different ways to get headaches

There are some obvious ways to get a headache.

The list might start off by including sleeping in a bad position.

But, according to the Cleveland Clinic, it might also include the following:

"

• Alcohol use.
• Changes in eating or sleeping patterns.
• Depression.
• Emotional stress related to family and friends, work or school.
• Excessive medication use.
• Eye, neck or back strain caused by poor posture.
• Lighting.
• Noise.
• Weather changes."

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/9639-headaches

Some of these might need a little bit of an explanation.

For example, alcohol use can lead to a headache because of lose of fluid in the body.

When you drink a lot of alcohol, then your body tries to expel it more quickly,

This means that you are using the bathroom more than you usually would.

And this in turn means that your body doesn't have as much fluid as it is used to.

Dehydration is a cause for headaches.

Too much and too little sleep can also lead to headaches and migraines.

"There are a number of factors that can put you at risk for developing migraines. One of those factors is your sleep patterns. A lack of sleep can cause you to develop migraines. A team of researchers at the University of Missouri found that sleep deprivation causes changes in the proteins that trigger and suppress chronic pain.

Sleep deprivation can also raise P2X3 protein in the body. This is a protein that initiates chronic pain. Furthermore, the researchers found that a lack of sleep increases the expression of the PKA and P38 proteins. These proteins regulate the sensory response in the trigeminal nerves, which can play a role in migraine development.

On the other hand, sleeping too much can also trigger migraines. Researchers have found that sleeping too much can alter certain neurotransmitters in the brain, such as serotonin. Additionally, if you sleep too much during the day and change your sleep patterns at night, then this can lead to migraines."

https://www.juliescottchiro.com/sleep-patterns-trigger-headaches-migraines/#:~:text=Researchers%20have%20found%20that%20sleeping,this%20can%20lead%20to%20migraines.

Most people I know get headaches and migraines because they get too little sleep.

Your body expects around 8 hours of sleep.

And if you are not getting that, than that could lead to headaches and migraine problems.

I know my dad would get bad migraines when we would go on long vacations because he wasn't getting as much sleep (and the naps) that he is used to.

One last thing to cover here real quick is the poor lighting and bad posture.

These can also lead to headaches because you are straining to do normal things.

If you have poor lighting, then you have to strain your eyes to look at your surroundings.

The most common of these is probably looking at a computer to do your work.

If you have poor lighting on your computer, then you have to squint and strain your eyes to see the computer.

The same for anything else you might be looking at in the poor lighting.

The bad posture again could lead to having to strain to see things.

Your muscles in your neck and back can get tense if you have body posture, which leads to a headache.

Weather changes are thought to cause chemical and electrical changes in the brain, which again in turn causes headaches in some people.

There is more in the list that could be explained, but I think what we have covered is sufficient for this article at this time.

Why lava sand heating pad is good for headaches

First, the lava sand heating pad is great because you can use it for both hot and cold packs.

If you prefer, you can purchase two lava sand heating pads and leave one in the freezer.

The other one would be left available to heat up at any time in the microwave.

But, you could also purchase just one lava sand heating pad and use it for both the hot and the cold.

This means that you could leave the one in the freezer until you are ready to use it.

Then you could pull it out and use it for cold or you could put it in the microwave.

There are so few heating pads where you can actually use it for both and not have to worry about ruining the heating pad.

Ice or wheat fillers in a heating pad are going to run out much more quickly if you switch them back and forth.

The application of heat will increase the blood flow to the area.

So if you place the heating pad on your forehead or your temples, then that should help to increase the blood flow.

This should help to relieve some of the headache to that area.

It can also help to relax muscles in the area, which could be the cause of your headache.

You can also use cold to help with the headache.

The cold helps because it does the opposite of the heat, it actually slows blood flow to the area.

So whether you use hot or cold depends on your preference.

If the heat works for you, than that is what you should use.

If the cold works better, than use the cold.

Other solutions for your headaches

Outside of using a hot/cold pack, there are a few other ways you can help to treat your headache.

The first of these would be stress management.

Stress is one of the leading causes of headaches, so managing the stress in your life can also help to get rid of the headache.

One way to help with stress is deep breathing.

Deep breathing helps because it first gives your body more oxygen to work with.

This helps to fill in the gaps where you might be lacking.

Second, it gives you the opportunity to think of something else other than what is currently stressing you out.

With deep breathing, I typically combine it with power poses.

Power poses might include standing like Superman, or Wonder woman.

The most important part is making sure that your shoulders are back and that your chest is out.

Standing like this helps you have a more positive outlook and again, helps you to think of something outside of what is stressing you out.

Another way to help get rid of your headache is to drink more water.

As we explained earlier, if you drink a lot of alcohol, you'll find yourself using the restroom more and this will greatly minimize the amount of water you have in your system.

It could also be that you haven't drunk enough water throughout the day, if you aren't a drinker.

For men, you should drink about 16 cups of water a day.

For women, that number goes down to 12 cups of water a day.

If you find you aren't drinking nearly this much water, that could lead to you getting a headache.

So make sure you are drinking plenty of water and if you do get a headache, drink even more water.

Next, you could also perform some moderate exercise to help with the headache.

When you exercise, your body released endorphins, which are the bodies natural pain killer.

So once the endorphins are released, that should help your headache to go away.

Caffeine is another option that could help with your headache.

I personally wouldn't recommend this option.

I've seen plenty of friends who were addicted to caffeine and had a hard time getting off of it because when they would stop drinking caffeine, their headaches would get worse.

So maybe it can be used as a temporary solution.

Getting a massage could be another solution.

According to ElementsMassage.com:

"Since many tension headaches and migraine headaches are accompanied by neck pain, headache sufferers find that manual therapies such as massage offer relief from headache pain and related symptoms. Because massage therapy relaxes tense muscles, relieves muscle spasms, improves blood flow and aids relaxation, it can be helpful for relieving the pain of both tension and vascular headaches."

https://elementsmassage.com/sun-prairie/blog/how-therapeutic-massage-can-relieve-headaches-and-migraines

Summary

Many of us suffer from headaches now and again.

There are many different reasons for getting a headache, including being dehydrated or suffering from anxiety or tense muscles.

No one solution is going to work for everyone.

But one option you should try is using a lava sand heating pad for either hot or cold on your forehead.

And if you try the other options in this article and the headache still persists, please see a licensed professsional.